Flying machine



.Aug. 3, 1937.

R. J. MCLAUGHLIN FLYING MACHINE Filed June 22, 1934 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

ATTORN S.

Aug. 3, 1937, R. J. MCLAUGHLIN FLYING MACHINE Filed June 22, 1934 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS.

Aug. 3, 1937.

R. J. M LAUGHLIN FLYING MACHINE Filed June 22, 1954 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR.

2224. Bi W ATTORNEYS.

Patented Aug. 3, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FLYING MACHINE Robert J. McLaughlin, Brooklyn, N. Y. Application June 22, 1934, Serial No. 731,985

30laims.

My invention relates to the navigation of the air and to the operation and construction of a turbine propeller.

It is the principal object of my invention to 5 provide a motor driven propeller equipped with means to make use of the kinetic energy of the current of air developed during the normal operation of the propeller to increase its emciency.

Another object of my invention is the provision m of a propeller for aircraft equipped with means for increasing its pitch angle during flight and thus increase the range of the aircraft.

I attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which 15 Fig. 1 is a top view of the air ship equipped with a propeller constructed according to my invention; Fig. 2 is a side view of the air ship; Fig. 3 is a partial rear view, in detail, of the turbine propeller; Fig. 4 is a side view, partly in section,

20 of the turbine propeller; Fig. 5 is a top view, in detail, of the turbine propeller; Fig. 6 is a front view of the central part of the air ship; and Fig. 7 is a sectional view, in detail, of a propeller blade.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts 25 throughout the several views.

The fuselage 4 of the aircraft is equipped at its front part with a motor driving the propeller ti constructed according to my invention, in which the turbine vanes 5| are arranged in the following manner:

They are inclined backward from the direction I of rotation of the turbine propeller and derive power from the kinetic energy of the current of air passing through them. The amount of this 35 power depends upon the angle at which they are set in the annular discharge vent 52. It may be very high and the percentage of power derived by the turbine blades may be as much as eighty percent of the total kinetic energy of the 40 stream of air entering the compression chamber 54. The power derived is spent in promoting the rotation of the turbine propeller and the efficiency be very greatto receive a minimum resistance as the turbine propeller advances through the air.

The air stream is divided by the ring 58, and part of it passes through the ring against the inner surface 59 and through the propeller blades 51. The other part passes around the ring 55 into the compression chamber 54 and against the sloping surface 58,. which serves as a background for the compressed air to act against in discharging through the turbine vanes. 10

This movement is aided by the scoops 53 which drive the air into the compression chamber 5| where a pressure of two pounds per square inch will be maintained at high speed.

The scoops are aerofoils having a lift to drift l5 ratio of about to 1 so that the actual resistance they will encounter in running against the air will be only one fifteenth of the pressure of the air in the compression chamber 54.

The air will move through the turbine vanes 5i with the speed of the air stream plus'the reaction from the pressure of the air in the compression chamber and the drive of the scoops 53 against the sloping surface 58. The resultant speed through the turbine vanes will always have a positive value and this is the distinctive diflerence between this propeller and the screw propeller. At certain speeds the pitch angle of the screw propeller is reversed in direction and the thrust is forward instead of backward. To get any performance out of the screw propeller its pitch must always be more than the speed of the air ship. If it can drive the air four hundred feet in the laboratory in one second the speed of the air ship will be about three hundred feet per second, and. the slip stream will be the difierence, or one hundred feet per second. The real pitch in the air is one hundred feet, due to the fact that the pitch angle changes during flight, and by making provision to increase the pitch angle during flight in recent years inventors have nearly doubled the range of the airplane.

The thrust derived from compression has no such defect and it will outclass the screw propeller no matter how it is modified. 5

The turbine vanes 5| will recover a large proportion of the kinetic energy of the resultant motion of the air passingthrough the annular discharge vent 52.

The ring 56 will be supported by the four blades 51 of a screw propeller whose axis shaft is the axis of the ring 55. The motor will be located in the leading part of the air ship I. v A provision for changing the pitch of the propeller blades 51 is shown in Fig. '1. Two pivots 55 and GI are journaled in the socket 62 of the propeller blades 51 and the ring 58. A spring is wound around the pivot ii to which it is ate tached at the outer end of the socket so that when the blades 51 begin to turn on their pivots 60 and iii the spring tightens and resists the turning movement. The blade is normal to the direction of rotation when the propeller is not moving, and its position is indicated by the dash lines shown in Fig. 7.

The pivot 60 is not centered between the leading edge 64 and the trailing edge 85 of the blade 51, but is nearer the leading edge 64, As the blade starts turning it occupies the position indicated by the dash lines 63, and the pressures are greater at the trailing edge 65 because it extends farther from the pivot ill than the'leading edge 64. The inequality of pressure causes the blade to turn on its pivots and BI until at full speed it occupies the position indicated by the solid lines of the drawing. This is the initial or static pitch. As the air ship moves forward the pressures on the blade 51 are lessened because the pitch of the blade in flight, the dynamic pitch, known as the slip stream, is less than the static or standing pitch. As the pressure on the pitch surface is lessened the spring 68 turns the blade back until it approaches the position indicated by the dash lines 63 which denote the greatest pitch of the blade 51.

Having now described the nature of my invention and its method of operation, I claim:-

1. In a flying machine, a propeller, an annular ring supported by the blades of the propeller, turbine vanes formed with said ring and inclined backward from the direction of rotation of the propeller, scoops formed with said vanes for directing air into said turbine vanes, said scoops and said vanes arranged on the outer side of the turbine flange, said turbine vanes connected to said ring on said propeller blades and driven by the kinetic energy of the current of air passing through them during the rotation of the propeller to increase the driving power of the propeller, and a spring connected to the pivot 01 the propeller blade sockets for automatically controlling the pitch of said propeller blades.

2. In a flying machine, a tractor propeller, an annular ring supported by the blades of said propeller, turbine vanes connected to said ring and scoops formed with said vanes for directing air into said vanes, said scoops and vanes arranged on the outer side of the turbine flange, the vanes formed with said ring driven by air maintained under pressure within said ring; and derived from the kinetic energy of the current of air passing through the vanes during the rotation of the propeller, the blades of said propeller acting as spokes for said ring, a shaft for said propeller blades and ring, and a spiral spring operatively connecting said shaft to said propeller blades and said ring.

3. In a flying machine, a propeller, an annular ring having a rounded leading portion and connected to the blades of said propeller, curving vanes formed with said ring, scoops formed with said vanes for directing air into the same, said scoops and vanes arranged on the outside or the turbine flange, said vanes driven by the kinetic energy 01' the current of air passing through said vanes during the rotation of the propeller, a compression area formed within said vanes, said curving vanes scooping the air into said compression area and distributing it around the rear surface of the leading portion of said propeller ring, said curving vanes set at an angle of incidence permitting the least resistance to the rotation of the propeller ring.

ROBERT J. MCLAUGHLIN. 

